Visual Skills - Photoshop/Illustrator

Working entirely with your own source images, create an A4 illustration using a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator on the theme of ‘The City’.

To me, ‘The City’ is London; the capital city of England. I used a photo of Canary Wharf, and surrounding buildings, as my central point, placing it on a floating island in order to section ‘the city’ from its surrounding towns and cities. The starburst background was produced to give the effect that the city is being propelled forwards; this was to symbolise the city as it moves forward into the future. The green in the starburst represents the city trying to be ‘green’ and the red to represent the iconic London busses that swarm the streets. The Underground train that appears to being coming out of the ground brings in another major means of transport for London. The wall brings in the ‘real’ aspect of a city being built of bricks and mortar. Adding the paint splats was to suggest the graffiti that can be found anywhere across London. However, using paint splats combines the strength of the concentrated paint from a spray can and tones is down, as if the rain is trying to wash it away and make the city cleaner. The blue blend flowing across the piece represents the River Thames that runs past Canary Wharf and weaves through the city. Further to a suggestion to add pipe work under the city, I tried to add in this detail. However, I was unable to action this as I didn’t have suitable photographs of my own to use.

© Copyright Kim Sharp 2012